Perhaps you have been collecting
picture postcards for many years and have spent countless hours examining,
studying, classifying and enjoying your cards. You’ve read dozens of books
about postcards and have become quite knowledgeable about your topics. Quite
probably you have reasonable writing skills plus a bit of creativity and would
really enjoy sharing your collection with the public. You may already be a
member of the American Philatelic Society (APS) and the American Association of
Philatelic Exhibitors (AAPE) (IF NOT, WHY NOT?). What are you waiting for? You
are about ready to enter into the world of exhibiting picture postcards!

What are My
Goals for Exhibiting PPCs?

Most
exhibitors exhibit for one or more of the following three reasons:

1.Personal satisfaction. Putting together an exhibit forces one to focus on a
particular subject, organize material according to a particular story line, and
learn many of the nuances of your material. There is a great feeling of
accomplishment when completing a new exhibit.

2.Sharing your material with others. Exhibitors truly enjoy sharing their material and can receive
valuable feedback from the viewer. Telling a story that will elicit positive
responses from viewers, encouraging them to join in the fun, is another aspect
of exhibiting.

3.The award. Exhibiting is a competitive endeavor and as such has
rewards for a job well done. Many exhibitors really do not care whether they receive
a top award or not, just achieving the first two goals is reward enough. That
is all well and good and not all three must be achieved, but if you do the
first two well, you will be surprised how well you fare in the award arena.

How Do I
Get Started?

Getting started when you may
never have attended a national stamp show let alone formed an exhibit can be a
somewhat daunting task. Fortunately, in organized philately, you should never be
alone struggling with the task. There are many out there that are just itching
to help you along your journey.

If at all possible, attend stamp
shows that have competitive exhibits. The exhibits do not need to be picture
postcard exhibits because, as we will discover later, all exhibits are judged by
five basic dimensions by which your exhibit should develop. Any well-done display
that achieves a high award will have excelled in each of those areas. The best
show to attend would be the APS-AmeriStamp Expo held each winter sometime during
the months of January through March at various locations around the country.
This venue showcases such exhibiting arenas as one-frame and display exhibits
as well as picture postcards. It will give you a comparative view of what a postcard
exhibit looks like versus a more traditional exhibit that you may have seen at
another show.

Both the APS and the AAPE are
prime sources for help in that each society offers a mentor service to help
answer questions from the most basic to the most advanced. The AAPE is more oriented
to exhibiting as it has an exhibit mentoring service. This mentor service can
be a constant question-answer source for you via e-mail, and even assist in the
development of page design and how to arrange your material once you have put
it on a page. Acquire the APS Manual of Philatelic Judging, currently
in its 5th edition. You would never consider playing a game before
knowing the rules, and this publication will give you the basis by which your
exhibit will be judged. Forewarned is forearmed!

SO: After reading, attending shows, studying exhibits and
discovering the services of AAPE, you are ready to begin. We will start by
going through the five basic aspects of how an exhibit is judged.

The Story/Treatment: As with ALL exhibits, the part of the exhibit that is
primary is the Story Line. Material placed on pages and put up in frames at a
show without a traceable and cogent story is a collection and not an exhibit.
That is a major point to understand; putting your collection on pages does not
bring to life the vibrant qualities of the material you collect. Many would
question what sort of story picture post cards can tell us, and the response is
“anything that you wish to tell”. These cards all have historical and/or
social aspects that plead for an outlet. Creating or developing a story around
them for your exhibit is a wonderful way to help them express themselves.

Just
like there are Divisions within the General Class of philatelic exhibits such
as Thematic or Cinderella exhibits, each of these formats may be applied using
postcards as the centerpiece to tell a story. If you collect cats, use the
subject to tell us about how cats interact with humans, how one artist portrayed
cats during his career, cats in anthropomorphic situations, etc. Although
showing your collection of cat postcards from one page to another may be
appealing to the viewer who loves cats, it does little to develop a logical
story necessary to become an exhibit.

Story
lines can revolve around a number of different areas which make exhibiting
picture postcards so compelling.

1.Topographical: A study of a place or places within a geographical
framework. Within this theme, time can be used to show changes over different
periods. Such real examples may include A Visitor’s Guide to Bloemfontein,
Postcards from ‘The Yard’: US Naval Academy or The Cuyahoga River.

2.Thematic: A study of a particular subject, theme or concept. This
could be a mixture of cards regardless of publisher, printer, country of
origin, etc. Such examples could be Windmills, Strike a Light!, Lovely
Ladies, or A View of the Blind.

3.Social/Historical: The use of the cards to illustrate some social or
historical aspect of society. A wonderful example is the exhibit which
enlightens us to the development of the picture postcard itself, The Golden
Age of Postcards: 1898-1918. Another fine example is The Road towards
Irish Independence, a deltiological review of Ireland’s struggle against Britain up to 1922.

4.Classification: This is a study of an artist, producer, photographer, etc.,
over a period of time or geographic area. Examples include The Picture
Postcards of the Knights of Columbus or Donald McGill: King of the Saucy
Seaside PPC.

The criterion
for this section called “Treatment,” which is some 30% of your score, is fairly
simple in that it is the “development of the story based upon a well-defined
title page and how well the material chosen is interwoven and aids in story
development.” In simple terms, did you select a title that says what it is
that you are trying to do, how well did you develop the story from the
standpoint of covering and developing the subject in your title, and how well
did you choose material to do this task? It is just as simple as that. The
BEST way to accomplish this goal is to write an outline or plan by which you
wish to develop your story. If the outline is well constructed, you now can
choose the items that best develop each section of the outline in a balanced
and more focused manner. Make your material fit the story, not the story fit
your material. The former will always do best in the scoring arena. One
very good reason you want to work from a story outline is that you will achieve
a balance of the material needed for each section of your story. You also will
discover that you may need to find an item that you do not have but is
necessary to properly make a point.

Research and Knowledge: This portion of your score, with the same importance as
Treatment (30%), is broken down into two sections: your knowledge of the
subject and that of the cards themselves. Each aspect of knowledge is of equal
value or 15%.

Subject
knowledge is expressed in two separate forms for all formats of exhibiting:
implicit and explicit. The implicit aspect relates to the selection of the
material that best reflects your knowledge of the subject. The explicit aspect
relates to answering questions about the subject that your material would bring
to light but not directly answer from viewing the item itself.

Knowledge
of the cards is an aspect peculiar to picture postcards. The exhibitor needs to
present information about the publisher, photographer, series and number within
the series, where printed and other aspects about the card to display personal
study and research into the aspects of the cards themselves. This, obviously,
is not an easy task and unlike philatelic subjects, very little has been
written about these details and much is most likely lost to us. Most of the
companies making the cards recorded little or nothing about their business and
what they produced. Fierce competition, proprietary processes and loss of any
records kept are key reasons for this. Obvious information from what can be
seen does little to advance this knowledge, but such things as the differences in
the reverse of the cards, multiple printings and variations along with personal
observations about the peculiarities of the cards themselves will go far in
gaining points here, even if there is nothing in the literature for your
subject.

If
there is no information about your subject, you will need to tell that to the
judges in the title page or synopsis. Personal research can be shown through explanation
of the cards that only your experience and observation can give. Even though
you may not show a number of cards from a series, making a statement that the
card, number 26, is from a set of at least 40 (the highest number you have
viewed) is positive. Anything that you discover during your collecting of these
items is fair game to put into your exhibit showing that you have gone beyond
the basic and obvious knowledge that anyone could glean from the cards
themselves. This is a particular challenge to the picture postcard exhibitor --
to find or develop the information related to the production of the cards
themselves.

Difficulty of Acquisition: Try to include cards that you know from published information
or personal experience to be scarce or difficult to acquire. This information
can be subtly imparted to the viewers by statements like “only example seen by
exhibitor in over 20 years of looking” or some such language. This also shows
knowledge as well as garnering points on rarity. This section is worth 15% of
the score. Subjective words like “rare” and “scarce” should be avoided as they
have rather nebulous meaning to each viewer.

Condition of Material: Condition
(15%) is very important. Cards, unless very hard to find, should be free of
defects, particularly if they are newer and have not gone through the mail.
Much of the material available, particularly in the earlier years, was sent
through the mail, and if these predominate in the population of available
cards, some corner rounding and cancellations and/or ink transfer from the
reverse may be expected. This also may assist in difficulty of acquisition
factors if pristine cards are the exception rather that the rule. You must use
the most appropriate material available to tell your story and if it is used,
so be it. Torn and/or repaired cards should be avoided in most instances. The
goal is to display the best condition available for the material selected whether
unused or used.

Presentation: Strive
for a neat and orderly look for your exhibit. Be creative in overcoming page
arrangement problems and the redundancy of two cards on every page. Creativity
and ingenuity can go a long way to make the exhibit compelling and visually
attractive. And remember, neatness at 10% does count! Since this is not
an English composition, the occasional typo will not detract, but do your best
to avoid errors.

Preparing
the PPC Exhibit

[Much
information can be gained from reading the above mentioned publications. For
further study, some excellent references on older cards are (1) Picture
Postcards in the United States 1893-1916, by George & Dorothy Miller,
probably the best reference for U.S. postcards; (2) A History of Postcards,
by Martin Willoughby, European background of ppc’s; (3) The Encyclopedia of
Antique Postcards, by Susan Brown Nicholson, an expert dealer, author,
collector, columnist. There are hundreds of outstanding PPC references. If such
books are not in your own personal library, many postcard clubs have libraries
for use of members. Some local libraries may also have a few PPC reference
books. Following are a few pertinent points related to picture postcards in
particular.]

Title and Synopsis Pages:
The Title Page goes a long way in setting the stage for what your exhibit
should be. A well designed title will focus the viewer into the arena where you
wish him or her to be when critically evaluating your labor. This page should
clearly outline the goals and parameters of the exhibit which can be done
nicely by a plan which will reflect the outline you used to create your
exhibit. The Title Page should be the first and last page done for your
exhibit, the first in that it defines your exhibit and the last in that it
needs to state exactly what the finished product really is. The Synopsis
Page(s) is seen only by the judges and should be used to inform them of
problems, challenges, and qualities of your material and exhibit subject. It
should NOT be a reiteration of the title page. This is your chance to talk
personally to each judge, so do not waste the opportunity by including a lot of
irrelevant information that is NOT necessary to judge your exhibit. Be
succinct and to the point; in fact a bulleted fact sheet is sometimes the best
way to go, the Power Point approach. This is your opportunity to bring up
things you want to brag about and to address criticisms and questions that they
may have about your exhibit.

The Philatelic Exhibitor,
quarterly journal of the AAPE, often contains good examples of these pages, and
the AAPE has a free critique service for the title and synopsis pages.

Page Design and Layout:
Experiment. There are many ways to design an exhibit, to select the material
appropriate for moving the story forward, and to present information on the
pages. Some exhibitors select the material to be shown and then photocopy or
scan the items. This will allow for manipulation of the items as you design
each page without subjecting the items to excess handling. Others use stock
pages to organize the material with notes for text inserted within pockets. The
right way for you will evolve as you progress. It can be slow work at first,
but when you get the hang of it you will find it very pleasing and personally
satisfying.

Mounting Material: There
are many ways to mount and highlight your material on the pages. Some simply
place the material on the page using corner mounts; others use the outline or
box function of the particular program they are using while others mat each and
every item on a separate piece of colored card stock. Although simple is
usually better, it is a personal choice for which there is no consensus. One
thing for sure, however, is that it must be pleasing to the eye and not
distract from the object of the exhibit, namely the cards themselves. Getting
too fancy in font selections or paper colors is not a good idea.

Text: Your text should
include information about the printer, printing
methods, publishers, artists, undivided or divided back, and any other
specifics germane to the cards themselves. This is a deltiology exhibit and
not a philatelic one. Just as one generally does NOT talk about the picture
side of a postcard in a postal history exhibit, the same is true here;
philatelic information, unless directly related to the subject of your story,
should NOT be discussed.

The
headings on the top of your page, taken directly from your outline, should be used
to help the viewer navigate through your exhibit and identify the items
displayed on the page. If it is about a particular publisher, the card
information will be primary. If you are telling a social or thematic story,
the subject discussion will be primary, while the card information will be
secondary (though necessary). The amount of text should be the minimum
necessary to support your story line. Excessive text tends to discourage
viewers from reading your exhibit. Remember, they are standing up!

You may
choose to use different styles of font depending upon the type of information
you are presenting. As with any form of exhibiting, there are few hard and
fast rules. Common sense generally dictates what order the text should be in,
etc.

USING AND
SHARING YOUR COLLECTION

Now your collection is organized,
you have begun to exhibit, and you are continuing to learn more and more about
postcards and the important role they play in preserving little pieces of
history from the past. Through exhibiting you are also making many new friends
and contacts. Exhibiting unlike any other aspect of the hobby (be it philately
or deltiology) is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying experiences we can
have. Not only are you learning more about your material, you are sharing with
many other like-minded collectors as well as advertising our hobby to perfect
strangers who might be moved to collect a new area for themselves. Organized
shows are made up of very outgoing personalities who, like you, are inquisitive
and intelligent people. Some of the most interesting people in the world
attend these shows and partake in exhibiting. You will soon find out that it
isn’t only stamps and postcards that you have in common.

What’s next? You are ready to move into another area of
exciting exhibiting. You have prepared your first postcard exhibit and most
likely attended some APS stamp shows to put it up. You have also seen some
wonderful stamp exhibits. While collecting your postcards over the years, you
have probably been collecting other ephemera and very likely some stamps and
covers. It is now time to get your feet wet in the pool of stamp exhibits!

The dealers you find at stamp
shows have an array of wonderful and interesting material. Once the exhibiting
bug has bitten you, there’s nothing to do but give in. Display division is the
perfect one for you to try since you can even use some of your picture
postcards, your ephemera, all sorts of philatelic material, and even some other
collateral material.

Once you attend that first stamp
show with your first postcard exhibit, you will be hopelessly hooked!
Exhibiting postcards and philatelic material combines the two most interesting
hobbies in the world. So don’t be intimidated; you don’t have to be an expert to
have a wonderful time pursuing material, interacting with other collectors,
discussing your needs with dealers and other collectors, and enjoying the
challenge of preparing new exhibits. You will also entertain and enlighten the
public, and as a side benefit you may just win some nice medals and awards!